SINGAPORE, March 4 (Reuters) - Turkmenistan will not invite
foreign oil companies to invest in the exploration or production
of its prized onshore gas fields, its energy minister said on
Friday.

International energy firms will be restricted to offshore
blocks in Turkmenistan's sector of the Caspian Sea and service
contracts at onshore gas fields.

"No, there is no possibility. Onshore, we do not do any
production sharing agreements," Bairamgeldy Nedirov told
reporters when asked if China's CNPC and other firms would be
invited to develop the country's onshore gas fields.

Ex-Soviet Turkmenistan is looking to diversify energy sales
from its traditional market, Russia, and is courting investors
from the West, China and other Asian countries keen to exploit
oil fields and the world's fourth-largest natural gas reserves.

Restricted to offshore oil fields, Dubai-based Dragon Oil
, Malaysian state oil major Petronas
and other foreign oil firms invested around $3 billion under
offshore production sharing agreements (PSAs) in 2010, and that
total was expected to increase this year.

"Starting from 2005, there has been gradual growth of
investment based on PSAs and the majority of the investment has
been made in the Turkmenistan's sector of the Caspian Sea," said
Ashirguly Begliyev, deputy director for the state agency for
hydrocarbon resources, at a two-day road show in Singapore.

Oil production under PSAs was expected to rise by 25 percent
to 42 million barrels in 2011 from 33 million barrels last year,
he said.

Of that total, 29.2 million barrels will be from the Caspian
Sea compared to 19.75 million barrels in 2010.

Turkmenistan plans to triple gas production to 230 billion
cubic metres (bcm) over the next two decades and forecasts a
more than six-fold increase in oil output to 529 million barrels
per year. With a population of only 5 million, it will export
nearly 80 percent.
(Reporting by Randy Fabi; Editing by Ed Lane)